Eshan Kazemi wrote:Would you recommend white-balancing in the camera rather than using colour correction gels?
As you pointed out, in addition to the sun hitting the window, a lot of ambient light should be simulated as well. What would you recommend for this? Do you have any practical suggestions (not too expensive) for bouncing the light? The floor is in the shot so I won't be able to put white stuff on it, but maybe on the ceiling? What sort of white material would you recommend?
You say that you do not see the window,
good you do not need to worry about making the window exterior daylight.
You can maybe project a pattern of a window on the wall. To suggest where the light is coming from.
I would not use gels. You only need gels if you are having daylight coming into the room and you need to blue tungsten light. Since you are shooting at night you will not need to colour correct the lights.
You can experiment with cheating the white balance slightly to make tungsten look cooler.
I would suggest that you take some time to look at the room in daylight or any room and study how ambient light is created. You will see that light bounces off every surface, mainly the walls. Try and duplicate what you see.
Since you do not have grip equipment I would suggest that you can use the following to bounce off:-
a white bed sheet, white paper, news paper, white card, polystyrene board, foam core, the walls in the room (if white). You can bounce off the ceiling too, but you will see when you observe an empty room in daylight that light comes from all directions. I would suggest that you do not use direct light except for effect.
I do not know your shot list but if you can project a pattern of a window or blinds on the wall, that will help sell the idea of daylight.
Remember to establish where the key light is coming from and keep that direction for continuity.
VERY IMPORTANT work safe, be aware of fire hazard if using hot lights..Do not hesitate to ask more questions.